Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – The Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (KemenKopUKM) Teten Masduki firmly refused to buy and sell imported used clothes or import thrifting because he wanted to protect the textile industry owned by MSME players.
“Our argument against used clothes is very strong and we want to protect our MSME products, especially in the textile and shoe textile products sector, of which there are also many MSME actors,” he said in a media discussion at the KemenKopUKM Office in Jakarta, Monday.
Minister Teten assessed that the import of used and illegal textile products was not in line with the Government’s efforts to encourage consumption of local products through the Proud Made in Indonesia National Movement.
“In my opinion, the smuggling of used goods, including textile products, is very inconsistent with the Proud Made in Indonesia movement, whose goal is to invite people to love consuming the nation’s own creations and what is traded is also illegal,” he said.
Through the BBI National Movement, he continued, the government has a policy to spend 40 percent of MSME products in the procurement of goods. From this policy alone, BPS predicts that there will be a national economic growth of 1.85 percent and create two million jobs without new investment. If household consumption does the same thing, he is sure that national economic growth will increase. Apart from not being in line with the movement to love domestic products, the trend of thrifting imports, he said, would also erode jobs because the textile industry is a labor-intensive industry that involves many workers.
Teten even asked customs to be more stringent in increasing supervision regarding the entry of imported used illegal clothing which has been banned in accordance with Minister of Trade Regulation Number 40 of 2022 concerning Amendments to Minister of Trade Regulation Number 18 of 2021 concerning Export Prohibited Goods and Import Prohibited Goods.
“Actually it’s not difficult because we have investigated it, apart from through social media (social media), there are in Pasar Senen, Gedebage and Pasar Baru. From there, it’s easier to identify who the importers are,” he said. (mhn/bbs)
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